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Hassles of Air Travel Push Passengers to Amtrak

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<p>[quote user="Alan F"]</p> <p>[quote user="Sam1"]</p> <p>The Acela does not make money.  Neither does the NEC.  The Acela, because of its premium fares, covers its operating costs and helps off set the operating loses of the other NEC trains.  How much?  Actually, we don't know since Amtrak stopped showing the route results, claiming that it is working on a new accounting system.  When the capital, interest, and ancillary costs are added to the mix, none of Amtrak's routes make money.  A business has to cover all of its costs to be successful.</p> <div style="clear:both;">[/quote]</div> <div style="clear:both;">Check the updated September 2011 Monthly Performance Report on Amtrak's website. The revised MPR for the end of FY2011 with final audited financial data for the route financial performance numbers was posted a month or 2 back. The fully allocated contribution/(Loss) columns shows that the Acela and the NE Regionals (for the first time I think) are operating in the black for fully allocated overhead.The total revenue numbers for the state supported and short distance corridors include the state operating subsidies, so actual ticket revenues for the FY shown back on pg 24 of the report should be used to get a measure on the true cost recovery for the corridor service. The total revenue for the trains must include food & beverage sales to add up, but the F&B income is not broken out. The Lynchburg Regional ran at a profit for the year and the DC to Richmond & Newport News Regionals almost broke even. [/quote]</div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;">You are correct in that the revised September 2011 Monthly Operating Report has the route performance information.  I had downloaded the report before it was revised and assumed on a review of the 2012 reports that Amtrak had not provided any route information.  What is interesting is that most if not all of the previous 2011 monthly reports did not have the route information and, as far as I can determine from a spot check, none of the 2012 reports have any route information.</div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;">The NEC regionals are barely covering their operating costs. None of Amtrak's trains are covering their fully allocated costs, which would include amongst other things depreciation and interest. I have assumed that the bulk of these items are attributable to the NEC, with a relatively small percentage allocatable to the short corridor and long distance trains.</div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;">All up, however, the results for the NEC are encouraging, in large part because they seem to support my contention that trains make sense in relatively short, high density corridors.  If that is not a good definition of the NEC, I don't know what is.</div> <div style="clear:both;"> </div> <div style="clear:both;">In one analysis that I posted, on a fully allocated basis, assuming that my allocations of depreciation and interest were reasonable, the loss per passenger mile for the long distance trains is only a couple of cents higher than the loss for the NEC trains.</div>
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